The talk organised by UKM’s Institute of the Malay World and Civilisation (Atma), was to feature Mahmoodreza Esfandiar, an associate professor at the Azad University, one of Iran’s largest universities.

Esfandiar, an expert on Sufism, was to speak on “Civilization and Cultural Heritage of Iran and the Malay World”.

The talk which was to be held yesterday was however cancelled, according to Atma’s Facebook page, without stating any reason.

FMT’s attempts to get an explanation from UKM also failed.

Atma director Supyan Hussin merely said the cancellation was due to a “technical reason”, adding that a similar event would be held later. Additional requests for comments from the university management also failed to get a response.

Esfandiar has published several books and articles on Tasawwuf, or Islamic mysticism, a branch of knowledge frowned by more conservative Muslim scholars.

It is not known whether the programme’s cancellation had to do with the subject matter, or due to its Iranian contents. This is because Iranian Muslims subscribe to Shia Islam, the school of thought which Islamic authorities label as deviant.

Last year, a lecture by prominent Turkish writer Mustafa Akyol at University of Nottingham was cancelled following pressure from the Federal Territory Islamic Affairs Department (Jawi). Akyol’s lecture tour had drawn criticism from Muslim groups, who accused him of promoting “liberal Islam”.

In November, the Royal Selangor Golf Club (RSGC) in Kuala Lumpur said it could not allow a forum featuring US-based scholar Nader Hashemi to be held there, due to fears it could be seen as going against religious authorities.